Variety -- The Spice of Christmas

One day, when the kids are all grown and looking back on their lives (that have been so meticulously preserved on this blog), I hope they can fully appreciate the wit it took to craft over a thousand blog post titles.  Hahahaha.  As of tonight, I have created 1,017 titles almost without repeat.  That's a lot of thinking to come up with something that will perfectly encapsulate what the post is about while also being entertaining and clever.  Hahahahaha.  

Tonight's post is all about our ward Christmas Party last Friday that was in the form of a variety show.  {Get it??  "Variety" -- the Spice of Christmas?  Because the saying actually goes "variety is the spice of life," but there's also a lot of spices at Christmas time AND it was a Variety Show??  Do you see what I did there?  THIS is the wit I'm talking about!!  Hahahahahahaha.  (I really only live to make myself laugh).}  Friday night's party was made extra fun by the fact that almost everyone in our family was participating!  Thanks in part to youth and activity day leaders, Ethan through Jane were each able to join in the fun of performing.  And thanks to Sophie, I was also able to participate.  (In a duet with Sophie.)  :)

Jane was EASILY the most excited about the evening thanks to landing the lead role of Santa in the "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" skit that the activity days girls put on.  She looked adorable with her pillow stuffed costume belly and her rosy red cheeks.  And the rest of the cast was equally adorable outfitted as the reindeer, a sugar plum fairy, and Mama and Papa.  The skit itself was really so cute and it was made even cuter to see how excited all the girls were to be on stage.  

As for the young men and young women, both camps went the musical route for their productions.  Ethan and the rest of the boys played a couple of Christmas songs on chimes while Grace and Sophie acted out a parody of the "12 Days of Christmas" (with the lyrics changed to be about our ward/the Church) with the other young women from our congregation.  Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a single picture of the girls' performance and only a grainy and distant one of the boys.  :(

And finally, Sophie and my duet-ing debut was with a beautiful little song called "Star Bright."  I remember singing this YEARS ago in church with a friend's mom in sacrament meeting, but I've never really heard it very often since then.  Well, Scott's grandma made a binder for all of her grandchildren with a collection of Christmas music and "Star Bright" just so happens to be in the mix!  Because it's kind of tricky to play (LOTs of syncopation), we've never really sung it all that much at home because it was WAY too hard for me to try and sight read plus sing at the same time.  This year, however,  I decided I was finally going to figure out how to play it!  And I did.  And between me, Sophie, and Ethan, it's been sung a LOT.  So when Sophie kept bugging me to get us into the ward Variety Show singing it as a duet, I finally caved and talked to the right people to make it happen.  ;)  Hahahahaha.  I was certainly more nervous than Sophie was, but at the end of the day it's a beautiful song and I do love to sing -- especially harmony.  And Sophie was more than happy to shine in the melody.  :)

(Pre-performance selfie.)

And that was that!  At the end of the night, we all had a lot of fun and it was nice to do something different from the usual Christmas party stuff.